text:
It's finished! As I mentioned way back in November, I had committed to the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, a historic triathlon that involves jumping off a boat into the San Francisco Bay, swimming to the city, biking around a bit and then running around a bit.
The swim is really the most significant aspect of the triathlon and it's the one I prepared the most for. Preparation started in ernest at the end of 2014 and my motivation really kicked in after my cousin Rita told me more or less that I was an idiot for attempting to swim a distance on my injured shoulder. If there's anything that I hate more than anything, it's being told I can't do something - so this really helped :).
The day of the event began at 3:20 am with a hastily consumed bowl of Trader Joe's granola decorated with a severely overripened banana. The banana was potentially a mistake because I immediately felt nauseous. At 3:35, dad and I were on the road to San Francisco. My phone battery was at 14% because, in the age of technological progress, it was deemed wise to manufacture a USB cable so thin that it could feasibly be plugged in upside down and the user would be none the wiser.
Thankfully it lasted long enough for us to reach San Francisco and at that point I reassembled my bike, gave my dad the phone with 6% of battery remaining and wished him luck with navigating to a parking spot. (He ended up finding parking near by and attempted to nap for a couple of hours.)
Arriving at the transition area at 4:15am, there was already a long line of riders waiting to enter. A female triathlete in a foul mood asked a volunteer why it was necessary for them to queue at this time. He shrugged and said he didn't know, as she rushed away to the end of the line. Another triathlete jumped in and said to the volunteer, "thank you, by the way, for giving up your time to be here."
Once in, I was very happy with my position at the end of the rack. An officious looking woman observed me laying out my towel underneath my bike and insisted that I make sure I didn't extend out too far outside of the rack. Given that my towel was perhaps 30 centimetres in width and the adjacent walkway was several metres wide, I could only laugh.
By the time I racked up, it was 4:30 am and I decided that it was probably wiser to use a porta-toilet before donning my wetsuit, for the obvious convenience. At this time there was already a substantial queue and so I was forced to take the first stall that was available, a structure that lacked the most basic stability from the outside and gave me the very real sensation while inside that I was about to re-enact that scene from Family Guy where Peter's porta-toilet falls over. Euch.
At 4:50am, the line for the bike pump was about 50 athletes deep. Meanwhile, outside, the line to get into the transition area had a couple of hundred athletes in it. While I was initially miffed at the early start to the event, it turns out to have been A Good Idea.
One of the best things about arriving so ridiculously early was that I got to make several acquaintances from around the world. In particular, there was the British woman who had flown in from New Zealand, the British man who had flown in from Toronto, the Rice university student who was the sole competitive triathlete in their club, the French man who was here for a second time and the German man who was a professional triathlete.
I got to the boat at just after 5am and gave up everything that I didn't need for the swim (including my glasses) and found a comfortable spot on the carpet next to a fence they had erected a few feet from the starboard windows to stop the boat getting unbalanced as people jumped off. Later, after I remarked that the carpet was actually fairly comfortable, the German pro mentioned I should notice how the carpet is wet as we leave. That, apparently, is from triathletes who don't wish to queue for the limited toilets on the boat. Euch.
Speaking of the limited toilets, one of the few possessions I had with me that I wasn't swimming with was a water bottle. Staying hydrated is important and I finished that bottle fairly quickly. However, now snugly wrapped up in a wetsuit, it made visits to the facilities somewhat tedious. The first was okay, given enough space in a stall, but the second and third involved significant queueing and some careful balance (I'm adamant my wetsuit will be exposed mostly to water).
1.5 hours later, we were close to departing. I felt like a nap. The adrenaline from waking up at 3:15am had mostly worn off. There wasn't, however, any space to lie down. Walking to the bathrooms involved hopping into tiny triangles in between excited triathletes. It would have been nice to do the Escape with a friend.
The boat departed at 6:34. There was much cheering. I was nervous.
At just after 7, we completed a circuit of the Alcatraz island. Athletes were stretching on the balcony. The queue for the bathroom was the entire length of the boat.
As it approached 7:30, the American national anthem played. I started an activity on my watch. It was searching for a GPS signal.
At 7:30, triathletes clustered at each end of the starboard side, where there were two openings in the rails. The fog horn rang. A loud cheer erupted, simultaneously with the almost non-stop sound of beeping as athletes walked over the timing mats and jumped off the boat. I made my way towards the exit at the back of the starboard side.
I walked over the timing mat. It beeped, many times, as others also walked over. There was little time to think, I wanted to walk straight off but ended up walking to the right to find a gap in the row of people jumping off. My watch was still searching for a GPS signal.
The water wasn't actually that cold. And the waves, they weren't that bad. I was disappointed. My competitive advantage was partially in the fact that I'd trained for the intensity of the Alcatraz swim, but the water that day, it was flat. The fastest swimmers apparently finished in 25 minutes or so. I took 40 minutes.
Unlike the HITS Napa triathlon I did, where I had elbows and feet hitting me from all angles, I only got hit a couple of times by other swimmers. One of those swimmers was going the wrong way, so I kept swimming into him. He continued trying to cross my path but I swore under my breath and kept going. He eventually gave up. I like to think I saved him some energy.
Swimming the Bay with 2,000 other swimmers was unlike anything I've ever done before. I felt like I was in a school of triathletes, each mostly swimming autonomously yet collectively we were all going the same way and helping each other navigate that way. Swimming in open water is so unlike anything else - there's nothing quite as expansive and as uniform as the surface of the sea.
After a while (well, 40 minutes), I arrived at the shore. I had left a shirt and a pair of shoes in a bag which was left out there. A volunteer helped me pull my wetsuit off. The shoes and shirt went on, and I overtook a number of people trying to run the half a mile to the bike racks in their wetsuits. Heh.
Bike shoes on, a run out to the mount point and I was off. The wind was at my back. I overtook a number of triathletes struggling to get up to speed on the flat. The hills came quickly enough, though, and I slowed down. Ostensibly, I was preserving energy for the run.
The bike course for the Escape is lovely, a hilly course around San Francisco with some lovely corners. That morning was foggy and descending into the fog on the return trip was much fun. I was adventurous, undeterred by the sight of an athlete who wrecked going down one of the downhills and who was now covered in blood and strapped to a body board being loaded into an ambulance. Out of towners struggle with the hills, particularly if they insist on using tri bikes.
There was a pungent smell emanating from my brake pads after a couple of the downhills. I'm glad I updated them a few weeks ago, they made the corners much more enjoyable.
While in Golden Gate Park, I made friends with a bearded, tattooed chap with a great shorts/jersey combination which were covered in flame graphics. These matched his tattoos well. I commented on this and we had a lovely conversation about Pittsburgh, from which he traveled.
The end of the bike was sad, for me, because running is mostly just pain. I put my new running shoes on and ran out. There's nothing sadder than a runner wearing cycling lycra but I'm too cheap to buy a tri-suit and too Indian to fit well within my cycling lycra.
On my way out, I overheard my dad directing my roommate Ryan to his location and was amused. My friend Alberto, an impressive triathlete who was there as a supporter, yelled "Go Sunil!". I smiled. A few metres later, a lady burst into laughter and commented, "what a great smile!".
The run was slow from the beginning. I was quickly overtaken by many of the athletes I had overtaken earlier while cycling. Still, I enjoyed the scenery and was the subject of a couple of comments, "You've traveled a long way from Cambridge!". One of these was from another 27 year old called Rob, with whom I confided that I was too cheap to buy a new jersey. We had a surprisingly in-depth conversation about why there are so many fast 40 year old triathletes and so few late twenty-somethings. He was faster at running than I was, so I bade him goodbye and continued on.
The finish to the triathlon was odd. You run past people who've already finished and families doing ordinary things. You can taste the end but you're not there yet. There's a good few hundred yards of grass to run through. The grass was slippery and my balance was suspicious. I didn't trip though.
Running through the inflatable finish gate, I was happy that it was over, that I finished. Also, a little underwhelmed. I'd expected that at the end of this accomplishment, my legs would be full of lactic acid, or I'd be ravenous, or faint. I felt fine. Perhaps I should have run faster ;-).
I had an assortment of friends and my dad waiting for me at the finish line. Actually, that's something of a lie, most of my friends arrived a minute after I finished because apparently my time prediction was perhaps a little too accurate - but they were there and that was wonderful! Thank you!
The hardest aspect of becoming a triathlete for any sort of event longer than a sprint distance triathlon is figuring out how to manage your time. The last six months or so have been an endless battle between my social obligations (mostly voluntary, mind you) and this underlying fear that I wasn't training enough. Well, it turns out that less is more - at first I overtrained and I was hellishly tired at work. Then I started training less, sleeping more and suddenly started breaking PRs on Strava.
The momentum is addictive and it'll probably carry me through to a half Ironman distance triathlon in September. My next challenge has already been set though - in March 2016, Phil and I will be participating in the Cape Epic, a notorious mountain bike race described as "the Tour de France of mountain biking".


text:
You control the intensity in this low-impact group indoor cycling workout. With great music and plenty of group motivation, you'll be taken through a journey of hill climbs, sprints, and flat riding. In this class, you'll repeatedly reach your cardio peak, when your heart beats between 70% to 84% of its maximum rate, and then ease back down. Keeping pace with the pack helps lift your personal performance and boost your cardio fitness.
This class is a great way to build up your sense of personal achievement, at the same time as you burn calories, get lean, and improve your aerobic fitness. Draw on the pack's energy and find your rhythm in the music. You control your own speed and resistance levels, so you build your fitness over time.
And if you're just starting out, you'll be shown you to set up your bike and how to do basic cycling moves. It's recommended that you start with 4 or 5 tracks, and work your way to a full class.
Short on time? An intense 30-minute workout will still give you the same results in a time that fits your busy schedule.
RPM™ Challenge
Feel the beat and the burn with this 60 minute workout. Push yourself further on a journey through hill climbs, sprints and flat riding. Keep with the pack or push on ahead for a workout that'll leave you with toned legs and hips.
RPM™ Beam
Ride to upbeat music and energizing strobe lights as you push yourself through a routine that'll go through any terrain from hills to flats to mountain peaks. It might feel like a club but the challenge is still there and you'll walk away with the same great results.
things to bring
If it's your first time, here's a few essentials you might need.
choose a class
Pick a club to find a class with a suitable time for you.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
There's been anecdotal evidence, and certainly plenty of signs on social media, that many Republicans still say Herman Cain is their choice for president despite the revelation that the restaurant trade group he once headed paid monetary settlements to women who accused him of sexual harassment.
Now we have some data. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll says Cain is statistically tied with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
The former Massachusetts governor, Romney, is at 24 percent while Cain, one-time head of Godfather's Pizza, was at 23 percent. The poll was the first conducted since news broke Sunday that the National Restaurant Association paid settlements to two women who accused Cain of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior when he chaired the trade group in the late 1990s.
In a finding that probably tells us more about how much party identification colors perspective, seven in ten Republicans said the sex harassment settlements and charges generally don't matter.
I haven't yet seen a poll that puts the same question to Democrats and independents but who doubts that the result would be far different?
The poll was taken after Politico reported that Cain was accused of sexually harassing at least two women when they all worked at the National Restaurant Association during the late 1990s.
The trade group paid the women settlements, reportedly $45,000 in once case and $35,000 in the other and the women left the trade group bound by confidentiality agreements.
Since the initial Politico story a third woman says she was harassed by the presidential candidate, a Republican consultant has come forward to say he witnessed some of the harassment and Cain, who first denied the stories has repeatedly shifted and contradicted himself.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
A while back, I was asked to give an hourlong presentation where I talked about my key principles of personal finance. I chose to give a presentation where each slide was available for about a minute with one simple rule on each slide, giving me a minute to discuss that rule. Thus, I ended up coming up with 60 short and simple rules for personal finance.
I would happily share the presentation with you, but I'm not sure of the copyright nature of some of the images used. Instead, I'm just going to present the 60 rules, along with my quick personal thoughts on each rule.
Of course, not everyone will be able to follow each rule all of the time. However, the more you follow these "rules," the better your financial situation will become.
#1 – Spend less than you earn
If there is a single fundamental rule of personal finance, it's this. You have to spend less than you earn and put away that difference for the future so that you can still survive and thrive when you're older and don't have the opportunities and energy of today. Without your earnings being greater than your expenses, you simply cannot achieve big financial goals without some sort of miracle – and you should never bet your future on a miracle.
#2 – Keep everything as simple as possible
The more credit cards you have, the more chances you have for identity theft and the more chances you have to miss a payment. The more investment accounts you have, the less attention you can give to each one and the more likely it is that you'll miss a big problem. The more accounts and investments and bills that you have, the more time and energy you have to spend to stay on top of it all and the more likely it is that you're going to make an error.
Simplify. Cancel some of those cards. Roll over some of those investments. Consolidate some of those debts.
#3 – Don't ever let your "future self" take care of your current situation
Do you ever tell yourself that it's okay to make a bad spending decision right now because you'll earn more money down the road? That's a giant mistake, one you'll almost always regret for a long, long time. Sure, your future self might have more income, but it's also fairly likely that your future self might have less income and you'll find yourself in a really bad situation. Even if your future self is doing well, there are probably going to be other big expenses that you'll want to deal with at that time, like buying a house.
#4 – Focus first on building an emergency fund
If you do not have a cash emergency fund just sitting in a savings account at a local bank somewhere, this should be your number one priority. Cash is king for solving all of the problems that life throws at you. Unlike credit, cash is available in situations of credit problems or of identity theft. You can start building an emergency fund by setting up an automatic weekly or monthly transfer from your checking account to your savings, then leaving the savings alone until an emergency beckons.
#5 – Focus second on eliminating high-interest debt
If you have an emergency fund in hand, you should next focus on eliminating your high-interest debt. Set up a simple debt repayment plan by organizing your debts by interest rate, then attempt to make a double payment (or more) on whatever debt has the highest interest rate. Make that double payment every month, then when that debt is gone, add the total amount of that payment to the payment you're making on the next debt on the list. Keep repeating until your high-interest debts are gone.
#6 – Focus third on saving for retirement
Once your high interest debts are out of the way, start saving for retirement. If you haven't already, open up a 401(k) plan at work and start contributing to that plan. If you don't have a 401(k) at work, set up your own Roth IRA account, which you can do through virtually any investment house (I use Vanguard). Contributing a few percent of your pay may sound painful, but it will actually end up being a much smaller burden than you expect, one that's lifted up by the pleasure of knowing that you're securing your retirement.
#7 – Buy term life insurance to cover your dependents
Don't let an insurance salesman fool you. You don't need much life insurance unless you have dependents (meaning people besides you whose well being directly rely on your income). If you do have dependents, your best bet is to get a term life insurance policy, one that will pay out enough money to care for your dependents in the event of your early passing. All of those other insurance plans offer things that you won't really need at all and charge you a pretty penny for it.
#8 – Build a budget, just for the process of building it right
A budget can be a useful tool for keeping your spending on track, but the most valuable part of budgeting is actually the process of building a budget correctly. How does one do it correctly? You build a budget based on looking at your actual spending over the previous few months.
How much do you actually spend a month on food? Entertainment? Utilities? Your car? Get real numbers, not estimates. Dig through your bank statements and credit card statements and figure it out. This process will easily show you the areas where you actually overspend, while just following a "cookie cutter" budget doesn't show you much of anything.
#9 – Cut the fat from every single one of your bills
We all get bills. Some of them aren't useful at all. Many of them have extra expenses tacked on that we don't really need. Go through each of your monthly bills with a fine-toothed comb, looking at every line. If you don't know what the expense is, call up the company and ask to have it removed. If you don't think you really need that expense, call up the company and ask to have it removed. If you don't need the bill at all, call up the company and cancel the service. This is a useful thing to do on at least a yearly basis.
#10 – Know how much money you actually take home per hour you devote to work
Figure out how much you earned last year after taxes, then subtract from that all of the costs of commuting, professional clothes, work-related meals, and other expenses you paid out of pocket. Then, figure out how many hours you worked (including those at home), plus the hours you commuted and attended other business meetings. Divide your after-expenses income by your total hours work to get your true hourly wage. That's how much you actually sell an hour of your time for.
#11 – Use that as a comparison point for everything you buy
I find that true hourly wage to be an incredibly valuable number. I use mine as a comparison for almost everything I buy. Let's say my "true wage" is $10 per hour. If I'm looking at buying a $20 Bluray, I ask myself whether owning this is worth two hours of my life when I could just rent it. If I'm thinking of buying a $1,000 television, I ask myself whether it's worth 100 hours of my life to have this model when I could have a lesser television instead. It almost always encourages me to ask what I'm really spending my life's energy to achieve.
#12 – Ignore "professional" stock pickers
Financial media, from magazines like Money and Kiplinger's to things like CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, are constantly loaded with articles where various "experts" are touting the "hot" stock and investment picks. I ignore all of it.
First, those people quite often have a big conflict of interest. Second, the ins and outs of various companies and industries are too complex for an outside stock analyst to know very well, especially considering how much information is hidden from them. Third, if their calls are actually accurate, the company they work for will have already acted on that information anyway, meaning you get (at best) the scraps left behind. Just ignore all of it.
#13 – Ignore "professional" economic forecasts, too
In much the same way, don't put much value in economic forecasts. Often, those forecasts are dead wrong and even if they're not, they're rarely good indicators of what you should be doing with your professional life or your money. Don't base your personal finance decisions based on what someone predicts will happen in the future, ever. If you're nervous about the future, then you should be more conservative in the investments you make from now on; that's about the only change you should ever make in the face of economic forecasts. However, that has more to do with your own personal risk tolerance than any economic forecast.
#14 – Set big goals and keep reminding yourself of them
What is it that you want for your future? It's a difficult question, but it's one that can provide incredible motivation and direction for the things you do in your everyday life, encouraging you to take better steps.
Do you want a secure early retirement? Do you want to start a business? Do you want to travel around the world? Whatever your goal is, keep it in mind all the time. Fill your life with reminders of your big goal so that you make better choices in line with that goal when it comes to all of those little decisions in your life.
#15 – Rent unless your total monthly cost of home ownership is lower than renting
It's easy to get sold on the "American dream" of home ownership, but if it's going to jack up your bills, it's probably not a wise move. You're better off renting and saving for a big down payment than moving into a home where your bills – mortgage, insurance, property taxes, homeowners association fees, maintenance – will add up to more than the cost of your rent and rental insurance.
If you do decide to buy, go low end and move up from there later so that you're not trapped under the weight of a giant monthly mortgage payment.
#16 – Buy cars based on reliability and fuel efficiency
Those are the two factors you should think about above all else when it comes to buying a car because they will make an enormous difference in your finances. A reliable and fuel-efficient car will keep your fuel bills and your repair bills low for the entire time that you own it. You can research reliability at your local library by taking a look at reliability data from Consumer Reports; fuel efficiency is easy to find at websites like fueleconomy.gov.
#17 – Drive the speed limit
Driving the speed limit saves you in multiple ways. Most cars are engineered to have good fuel efficiency at typical speed limits, but their fuel efficiency drops rapidly above that, shedding as much as 1% fuel efficiency for each mile per hour over 65. This article provides lots of details on this phenomenon, but it turns out that slowing down even a little can save you a lot of cash.
Furthermore, driving the speed limit drastically reduces the chances of a traffic ticket, which can both be directly expensive and result in insurance inflation. Simply dropping your speed from, say, 70 to 65 only costs you about 4 minutes per hour of driving, but it saves you a surprising amount of cash.
#18 – Air seal your home
One of the biggest costs to homeowners comes in the form of leaking air. In the winter, warm air leaks out and cold air leaks in, causing the furnace to run more. In the summer, cold air leaks out and warm air leaks in, causing the air conditioner to run more. There are lots of solutions to both problems, but one of the most efficient strategies for both is to just air seal your home, which means that you look for places where air is leaking out of your home and you seal them up. Here's a great guide to home air sealing.
#19 – Build strong relationships with your neighbors
A neighbor is a person that you can borrow something from instead of having to go to the store. A neighbor is a person who can keep an eye on your property while you're away. A neighbor is a person who can make an ordinary dinner into an effortless social occasion without any additional cost. A neighbor can be an endless source of useful advice about the local area. Get to know your neighbors and build a relationship with them. Offer to help your neighbors whenever you can – and ask them for help sometimes, too. You'll build a relationship that will offer tons of value to both of you.
#20 – Request rate reductions on your debts, especially credit card debts
If you owe any debts, it never hurts to look into the possibility of reducing your interest rates on those debts. For credit cards, it's as easy as simply calling up your credit card company and asking for a reduction. For other bills, such as student loans, a consolidation can lower your interest rate. With your mortgage, a refinancing can reduce your rate dramatically.
Lowering interest rates can both reduce your monthly payments and reduce the total amount of interest that you pay over the life of a loan, so any reduction you can get is a good thing for your wallet.
#21 – Don't (necessarily) save for your children's college education
Many people worry about how their children will pay for college. Here's the thing: you can provide just as much help to them by being completely financially secure as they grow older so they don't have to worry about you as a financial burden. If you do choose to help, you can usually tap your retirement to help pay for education (though that's usually not the most financially sound idea, it is a possibility). It's never bad to save for college, but you should make other things a priority first.
#22 – Teach your children about smart personal finance from day one and be a good example
Talk to your children about money starting from the earliest age. Explain to them the virtues of spending less than you earn and not getting yourself into debt. Even more than that, live those lessons in front of your children. Don't just talk about it, do it. Show them how it's done in your day to day actions. If you talk about spending less than you earn and then do it in your day to day life, the lessons are much more likely to stick.
#23 – Don't touch your retirement if at all possible
When you're struggling to pull yourself out of a financial hole, it can be very tempting to tap your retirement funds to pay off debts or to make a house down payment. If you can, avoid doing that. Not only do you lose out on years of growth in your finances, it's also very easy to not adequately restock your retirement after doing this. Tap your retirement if you must, but it should be an avenue of last resort.
#24 – Invest most of your money in stocks – and hold on no matter what happens
Not sure how to invest your money? Unless your goal is a short-term one – less than 10 years until you empty it out – you should have most of your money in stocks because, over the long term, they tend to offer very good returns. The problem with stocks is that they tend to be very volatile, with lots of short-term jumps and falls in value. Hold on and be patient; better yet, just don't look at the value of your investments if they're far down the road.
#25 – Shoot for the average by buying index funds with low fees
The best way (in my opinion) to invest in the stock market is to buy index funds with low fees. Index funds allow you to buy a small piece of the stock of lots of different companies at once with one single investment. Usually, index funds offer low fees as well (because they don't cost much to manage), which means more of your investment stays with you rather than being drained off by the investment house.
#26 – Don't bother with individual stocks
Individual stock investing is a fool's game. In order to do it well, it requires a ton of research and a lot of attention, and even then it comes with a lot of risk. Unless you get significant enjoyment out of it and are investing with money that you won't needin the future, I strongly encourage you to avoid investing in individual stocks.
#27 – Buy some international investments, too
Most people focus on buying domestic investments – stocks in American companies, American treasury notes, and so on. That's fine, but it puts you at risk in situations where America's economy is weaker than the rest of the world. You should diversify at least a little and have some portion of your investments in an index fund made up of international stocks and other international investments such as the euro and the Chinese yuan.
#28 – Put the rest of your investments in bonds and Treasurys
Unless you have a ton of risk tolerance and your investment goals are far, fardown the road, it's not a bad idea to have at least some of your money in safer things like highly rated bonds and United States Treasury notes. These investments are much less volatile than stocks and tend to just slowly raise in value consistently over time.
#29 – Buy target-date retirement funds within your retirement account
While the previous four tips are useful ones if you want to invest outside of your retirement account, most people are concerned more about investing withintheir retirement account. In that case, your best investment option (assuming you don't want to spend a ton of time studying and rebalancing) is to simply buy a target-date retirement fund within your retirement account. It essentially automates the tips given above.
#30 – Get every possible dime of employer matching in your 401(k) or 403(b)
If your employer offers matching funds for your 401(k) or 403(b) plan, make absolutely sure you're contributing enough to get every single dime of those matching funds. Why? They're free money – and free money is rare in life. It allows you to get a huge immediate return on every dollar that you save for retirement. Not doing this is effectively the same as telling your employer that you don't want their money and that they should keep it instead.
#31 – Make a meal plan at the start of each week
One big mistake that busy people make is that they don't have a clear plan for where their meals are coming from during the week, leaving them to improvise on many week nights. That kind of improvisation, where there are no plans for dinner when you get off of work or there are no plans for lunch during the work day, usually ends up with extra expenses in the form of restaurant meals, takeout, and convenience foods.
A bit of time spent planning out meals for the week when you have time during the previous weekend can drastically cut your food expenses because you'll know what you're having for each meal and can easily handle the necessary preparation.
#32 – Use your grocery store flyer to assemble that meal plan
Your grocery store flyer lists all of the foods that are on sale that week. Use it as the basis for figuring out your meal plan for the upcoming week by starting with those ingredients and using Google to find simple and tasty recipes using those ingredients. Once you have some recipes, make a list of all of the ingredients that you don't have – that's your grocery list. Which brings us to…
#33 – Don't ever go shopping without a grocery list
If you're ever in a store without some kind of shopping list, you're probably making a mistake. If you don't have anything you actually intend to buy there, then you're hanging out in a place that needlessly drains your wallet. If you do intend to buy some things but don't have a clear plan for it, you're going to get sucked into impulse buys, which will also drain your wallet. A shopping list keeps you on focus whenever you're in a store, which cuts down significantly on those impulsive purchases.
#34 – Ignore advertising
Try as much as you can to cut advertising out of your life. Minimize your time spent reading magazines. Fast forward through commercials – or find other ways to watch television that don't involve commercials at all, such as binge-watching via Netflix. Listen to commercial-free radio like NPR. It's hard to completely eliminate advertising in modern life, but the less you're exposed to, the less temptation you have to spend your money on products you don't need.
#35 – Find hobbies that don't require an upkeep cost
Many hobbies have an ongoing upkeep cost. Golf, for example, always requires new balls and more greens fees. Many hobbies require you to constantly buy fresh supplies for making things. While it's fine to have some hobbies that require an upkeep, try to discover ones that have small upkeeps or none at all. Get into things like geocaching or rock collecting or playing music on an instrument you already have.
#36 – Try anything and everything that's free in your community
Many communities have a thriving community calendar that lists endless meetings, community events, and other things going on around town that you may not even be aware of. Your local library probably has an additional calendar with tons of events, as does meetup.com and the bulletin boards at city hall and the post office and the library. Check all of these things. Try everything that's free, just to see if it clicks for you. At worst, you'll learn more about your community at no cost. At best, you'll make a lot of new friends as well as find activities and clubs you're interested in, and it'll still cost you nothing.
#37 – Don't worry about what other people think
Don't choose a car to impress other people. Don't choose clothes to impress other people. Don't choose gadgets to impress other people. Why? Because it won't really impress them. The only thing that will impress someone about you is you. It's about how you carry yourself, what ideas you bring to the table, and how you listen and respond to others. Don't spend a dime on the other stuff.
#38 – Don't worry about how other people spend their money, either
If you see someone driving an expensive car, don't use that as an excuse to feel jealous or to tell yourself that you, too, need an expensive car. You don't. Just because other people choose to buy things or eat at certain restaurants or whatever else people in your life choose to do with their money does not mean you need to do it too. Make choices and spend money on things that build up the things you care about, not the things other people care about.
#39 – Put in the time to build good, strong, lasting relationships
Having a life full of strong personal and professional relationships will serve you well in every aspect of your life for the rest of your life. The people in your life provide emotional, social, professional, spiritual, mental, and, yes, financial support for almost anything you might want to do. Put in the time and effort to build strong relationships by helping others, listening to what they're saying, offering support, and being involved with the community.
#40 – Review your finances, your career, and your life once a week
This may seem overly simple, but it has brought about countless transformations in my life. Once a week, I spend an hour reviewing the week that has gone by as well as thinking ahead to the week that is to come and my long term goals.
Am I doing things that are in line with those goals? What are the best things I did this week in terms of where I want to be going? What were the worst things, and why did I do them? How can I avoid doing them in the future? Am I still happy with my big goals? Spend real time thinking about those things every week and you'll feel a positive transformation in your day to day life.
#41 – Never play the lottery
The lottery is a for-profit enterprise, meaning that the lottery keeps more money than they pay out. That means you're extremely likely to wind up on the losing end of the stick, paying in more money than you'll ever get out of the lottery. Don't do it – it's a true waste of money. The same thing is true for casino games of chance. If you enjoy playing games, find other distractions.
#42 – Find meaningful things to spend your spare time on
This goes in line with the suggestion above to find hobbies without an upkeep cost, but it goes further than that. Are you spending your spare time in a way that makes you into a better person? Are you building skills in your spare time? There are plenty of ways to have fun while also building skills or developing as a person, from volunteering or attending religious services to taking career-boosting classes or getting involved in a professional or civic organization.
#43 – Start a side business doing the thing you've always wanted to do
Almost all of us have a big dream inside. My dream has always been to be a fiction writer because I deeply love telling stories. Whatever your dream is, find a way to fill at least some of your spare time with it. Is there a way to touch on the thing you enjoy so deeply while also making money? Could you make Youtube videos about it, or start a website, or write a Kindle book? Most likely, you could – you just need to make that choice.
#44 – Watch less television
The average American watches five hours of television per day. If you can take just half of that time and apply it to other life-enriching activities, not only will you build a better life for yourself – probably one in which your earning potential is significantly increased – but you'll feel better, too, and have fewer material desires.
Don't give up television programs if you enjoy them, but give up mindless "channel surfing" and find something more fulfilling to do. You'll probably use less energy and you'll also likely improve your earnings.
#45 – Use the 10-second rule
Whenever you're tempted to splurge on something cheap, simply hold it in your hand for 10 seconds and ask yourself honestly whether you need it or not. Actively try to think of reasons why you shouldn't buy this item. Will it really help you toward your goals? Will you really get enough value out of it to make it worth the cost? Usually, just 10 seconds will convince you that you don't really need the item, and if something still passes the test, feel free to buy it!
#46 – Use the 30-day rule, too
What about more expensive items? For more expensive items – and you can draw the line between "cheap" and "expensive" where you please – simply choose to wait 30 days after your first serious impulse before buying the expensive item, provided that it's not an essential or emergency need. Use that time to do a little research and make sure you actually want or will use the item, and also give it time to just sit there and see if the desire dies down. You'll find that, more often than not, you won't want the item after thirty days.
#47 – Shop first at the low-end stores
Whenever you're shopping, choose to make a "first run" at low-end stores: discount grocers, thrift stores, secondhand stores, and so on. Sure, it's unlikely that you'll be able to pick up everything you want there, but if you can just knock a few items off your list at bargain-basement prices, then it's going to lower your overall spending by a notable amount. For example, I use Aldi as a "first-run" grocery store when I have a big list, as there are several items I buy there before I go to other stores.
#48 – Cut back on convenience foods
Convenience foods – meaning any food that's partially or wholly assembled or prepared for you to eat at home – are virtually always overpriced and are usually incredibly unhealthy. You pay for the convenience of those foods, not for the quality of the ingredients or the bang for the buck.
There are times when convenience foods can really help out, but find ways to cut back on them. Learn to make simple meals at home and your cost per meal will go down significantly (as will your long term health care costs).
#49 – Cut back on drinking, smoking, soda, and other addictive habits
Any substance that you feel compelled to consume that doesn't fulfill a dietary need is not only an unnecessary expense that's draining your wallet, but likely damaging to your health as well. Are you feeding an alcohol addiction? Smoking? Soda? Coffee? Do you find it difficult to function without these things? Are you spending money constantly on these things? If you're nodding your head yes, even reluctantly, it's a sure sign that you need to cut back on a habit.
#50 – Make meals in advance on the weekends
One of the most valuable things you can do on the weekends is to make some meals in advance for the coming week or two and store them in the freezer. For example, you might make a batch of breakfast burritos so that you have a quick, tasty, healthy, and inexpensive breakfast for the coming weeks. You might make a quadruple batch of lasagna, eating one for dinner on Sunday and sticking the other three in the freezer.
Doing this lets you cook at home (saving money) using bulk ingredients (saving more money) and sets you up for cheap and convenient meals later on (saving even more money).
#51 – Use LED light bulbs
LED light bulbs have reached the point where they make an almost unnoticeable replacement for ordinary incandescent bulbs. The only difference? They use about 20% as much energy and last 20 times as long. Adding together all of the costs of an incandescent bulb versus an LED bulb, you'll save more than $100 over the lifetime of the LED bulb as compared to incandescent lighting. No joke.
#52 – Price-compare the grocery options in your area and choose the inexpensive one
What items do you regularly put on your grocery lists? Milk? Bread? Eggs? Make a short list of ten or fifteen items that you buy very frequently at grocery stores, then visit different grocers over the course of your next several grocery shopping excursions. Note the price of those items, then add them up. You'll save money over the long run by shopping at whichever store has the lowest total on those items. However, this is a good thing to check every year or two as stores tend to evolve their pricing schemes and new competitors enter the market.
#53 – When you have a problem, try to fix it yourself
When your toilet is having problems or your faucet won't stop dripping, it can be tempting to call a repairman to have him or her just fix the problem. Before you do that, though, give the problem a shot yourself. Look up how to do it online, borrow some tools from a friend, and see what you can do. You might just find that you can fix the problem yourself, saving some cash and building confidence for future repairs. The worst case is that you just have to call in the repairperson anyway.
#54 – Keep up with your car maintenance
It's easy to forget about regular car maintenance. After all, the car starts up every morning and you scarcely have to even think about it. The problem is that neglecting maintenance over the long haul will eventually wear out your car and lead to major problems far sooner than necessary.
Your car has a maintenance schedule in the owner's manual that you can easily follow – it tells you what maintenance is needed at what mileage, making it easy to schedule appointments or, even better, to do it yourself.
#55 – Keep your tires properly inflated
Every two PSI that's missing from your set of tires costs your car 1% in fuel efficiency. Big deal, you say? Many cars are missing as much as eight or ten PSI, resulting in a 5% loss in fuel efficiency. Imagine just losing a gallon of gas for every 20 that you buy.
Even worse, an underinflated tire is much more at risk of tearing or suffering other damage, leaving you stranded with a big expense. Keeping it inflated is really easy, too; you just need a few minutes at the "free air" pump at your local gas station to get things right.
#56 – Cancel your unused memberships and subscriptions
Got a gym membership you never use? Cancel it. What about a country club you haven't been to in years? Drop it. Don't watch your Netflix subscription? Drop it. Got Amazon Prime but only order stuff once every month or two? Drop it. Subscribed to DailyBurn but rarely exercise? Drop it. Unused subscriptions and memberships do nothing but devour your money month after month.
#57 – Eat leftovers and brown bag your lunches
Leftovers might not sound like the best thing, but they're free meals and they're easy to jazz up with a little salt and pepper and maybe a few spices like a dash of Italian seasoning.
If you have leftovers after your family dinner or if you're bringing home a doggy bag from a restaurant, take the extra step to package these leftovers up as convenient individual meals and take one with you to work the next day or the day after, making for a free lunch. If you're prone to eating out for lunch, get into a routine of this, as well as a routine of making your own lunch at home the night before so that you always have something to take with you for lunch that's far cheaper than eating at a restaurant each day.
#58 – Use public transportation, especially if it can help you to eliminate a car
Public transportation can be an incredibly inexpensive way to commute to work, especially if you purchase a long-term pass. Many people overlook it for the "freedom" of driving a car, but then rarely do much on their commute other than drive to and from work. If that describes you, try using public transport for a while. It's often faster in rush-hour traffic and cheaper than the gas and oil and other maintenance costs of running the car. And if you find you can do without that car, you can sell it for some money in your pocket and lose the registration and insurance costs.
#59 – Share your dreams and your mistakes with your partner
If you're in a long-term relationship, being completely open with your partner about your dreams as well as your mistakes is an incredibly powerful way to maintain your focus and continue to make good decisions in life.
Spend some time at least once a week talking to your partner about your big goals in life as well as any challenges and mistakes you're struggling with. Encourage your partner to do the same, and keep any negative emotions in check. Instead, encourage each other to improve and do better and keep that encouragement up throughout the week. This makes a worldof difference in every aspect of life.
#60 – Remember that "stuff" will never make you happy
Happiness comes from within. All the stuff in the world won't make you happy, but if you're happy inside, it doesn't take much of anything to bring you joy. Never, ever buy into the idea that owning something will make you happier than you are right now because it won't. The only way money can help is by reducing your stress and eventually improving your life options through improved financial security – and you can only get there by being smart with your money.
Final Thoughts
These rules aren't hard and fast ultimatums designed to run your life, but little tools that you can use to put yourself on a better financial, professional, and personal track. Feel free to pick and choose among them and find the ones that will work well for you, as each of these can improve one's situation. If you can, try to apply a lot of them to your life, as the more positive directions you have, the faster your whole life will transform (in a good way).


text:
Additional Swine Flu Resources
Organizations and web sites providing assistance and info on swine flu.
May 27, 2009 -- There are many organizations and government programs that can offer advice and provide information on various issues related to swine flu. Here are some links to a few of them with explanations detailing what you'll be able to find.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
This is the home page for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and it offers guidance for consumers on the H1N1 Flu. It contains an up-to-date surveillance report that tracks the weekly flu activity case count in each state. It also lists the steps you can take to prevent flu and remain healthy. And you'll also find links to other reliable H1N1 Web resources in the U.S. and around the world.
Billed as a "one-stop access" point to the U.S. government's health information on H1N1, avian and pandemic flu, this site contains the latest news on the H1N1 situation worldwide along with an overview of the efforts to create a vaccine as well as answers to a variety of frequently asked questions about swine and bird flu and flu pandemics (past and present).
World Health Organization: Influenza A (H1N1)
The latest news, advice, updates and answers to common questions on Influenza A (H1N1) from the World Health Organization offers a global perspective on the outbreak. There is a timeline of the worldwide spread of confirmed flu cases in addition to specific guidance for individuals, health professionals and communities affected by the virus.
Medline Plus: H1N1 (Swine Flu)
This valuable compilation of printed information and multimedia resources on the virus was put together by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. You can quickly obtain an overview of the illness, read the latest news, and get flu-related advice from national health organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association and the Food and Drug Administration. Some of the H1N1 fact sheets are also translated into 14 different languages.
This worldwide flu tracker helps you to visually see the number of suspected, confirmed and fatal cases of H1N1 flu around the globe. Data is culled from official sources, news reports and user contributions and is updated several times a day. Users can also post their thoughts in a comments section.
A collection of recent medical news articles on the H1N1 flu. The information is written for and reviewed by health professionals but might also be of interest to a general consumer audience.


text:
Dear Herbert Schlangemann,
I am the secretary of the International Conference on Electric Information and control Engineering (ICEICE 2011); I write to you for share this conference information, and we wish to invite your University to co-sponsor this conference.
ICEICE 2011 is sponsored by Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
As a authority of the field, your participation and support is essential to the success of the conference. And we believe your participation will bring more glory to this conference!
Thank you for your consideration, and looking forward to hearing from you!
Best regards,
Yours Sincerely,
ICEICE2011Organizing Committee


text:
Thank you! Great suggestions. So hard to think straight in the morning, but I'm printing these out to have handy. More, please!
Taking your lunch to work saves you money, but it's such a hassle when you're living with a gluten allergy. Something as simple as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich becomes a nightmare of buying expensive bread or making your own. Although you can make your own gluten-free bread ahead of time for days you want a sandwich, here's a list of 20 non-sandwich lunches for a frugal gluten-free lifestyle. (See also: 25 Quick, Cheap Lunch Ideas)
Quiche Muffin Recipe
Makes 12
Preheat your oven to 325°F. Blend all of the ingredients in a food processor, or just beat very well with a whisk. Pour them into a greased cupcake pan, about 2/3 full. Place them in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until set. Allow to cool before putting them into plastic storage bags. Freeze or refrigerate. After thawing, place them in microwave on high for about 30 seconds before serving.
Some of these lunches would do well if you have access to a microwave at work. Also, it pays to invest in a small cooler to keep the meats chilled before lunch.
If you're packing lunch for your kids, here are ideas to prepare your gluten-free kids to go to school, with age-appropriate lunch ideas.
Snacks on the side are relatively easy. There are a lot of very gluten-free friendly snacks out there if you read the labels. Some of our family favorites are:
Also, if you really want a no-brainer and are craving sandwiches in your lunch, just bake double a batch of gluten-free french bread on Sunday, cut each loaf in half, (you should have four) and freeze the loaves. Microwave a half of one the night before work and you have yourself enough bread to make a six inch sub. This makes for an easy lunch that doesn't need a microwave at work (unless you do something really tasty like a tuna melt or a meatball sub).
Making life as simple as possible for the gluten-challenged is what I spend my days doing. I'm always looking for ways to keep it cheap and simple. If you have any gluten-free lunch ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Thank you! Great suggestions. So hard to think straight in the morning, but I'm printing these out to have handy. More, please!
Good ideas, but I am curious to see peanut butter on the list. Due to more and more kids being allergic to peanuts, I now have to use almond butter instead of peanut butter.
A rice cake with a layer of Nutella and a layer of peanut butter is an old standbye for me. Put it in a little round plastic box with toothpicks protuding to prevent all being smashed.
So, has anyone ever found a gluten-free tortilla you can wrap/fold without it splitting and curling? If so, let me know!!
I haven't "found one" per se. But I can make them. Here's a link to that article.
Thank you so much for your easy, cheap recipes Sonja! I have relied on them since going gluten free last summer. I just can't get any bread recipes to work out with my breadmaker. But this week I baked a banana pecan bread and a cheese sunflower bread by adapting quick bread or biscuit recipes. I just substituted the flour with your all purpose gf flour.
My new favorite gf snacks are the crackers by Blue Diamond. They are made with nut flours. Pecan are my favorite so far. They are sort of expensive - but so worth it!
These are great gluten-free food suggestions. I appreciate it. I have a friend who plays basketball in college who has to maintain a gluten-free diet. I'll refer this article to him. He gets frustrated finding good food to eat sometimes. Great article
I make gluten free fish sticks (coat small pieces of fish w/ GF flour and spices and then fry), lunch meat roll-ups, rice with sausage and spinach, meatballs, GF fried chicken, and even refried beans in taco shells for my son's GFCF lunch. I just add a coconut flour muffin or homemade cookie, fruit and veggies.
I appreciate any list i can find of foods that I can eat, however on your list you have Chili and Chili in and of itself may not be gluten free unless the chili powder or mix is the pure season or states gluten free -- Just and FYI


text:
Leaks)From Water Valve_ Top Loader
From Home Water Valve
How to fix
Q. Please look behind the washer and check for leaks at or around the home water taps.
PLEASE CHECK CAREFULLY. If service is dispatched and the issue is a home problem, you may be charged.
Yes : Please check the home water valve. If the leak is the valve itself, it will need to be repaired by a plumber.


text:
Kristinwesthead says: "Here are my ratties Dot and Tinkerbell enjoying some strawberries and whip cream."
OMG! That is one of my favorite sweet treats too! Dot and Tinkerbell are two fancy ratties!
Do you have a squee pet that you want to share with the world? Send us your pet pictures and stories, and they could end up on Daily Squee!


text:
(CNN) -- "Global declines in press freedom" persisted last year, with setbacks highlighted in Israel, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere across the world, an annual survey said Friday.
Media freedom campaigners don gags during a news conference in Hong Kong in April 2008.
Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization that supports democracy and freedom of the media, said in its annual press freedom survey that "negative trends" outweighed "positive movements in every region, particularly in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa."
"This marked the seventh straight year of overall deterioration. Improvements in a small number of countries -- including bright spots in parts of South Asia and Africa -- were overshadowed by a continued, relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions, in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments."
Israel -- once the only country to be consistently rated free by the group in the Middle East and North Africa -- was ranked as "partly free" because of the Gaza conflict.
The report cited "increased travel restrictions on both Israeli and foreign reporters; official attempts to influence media coverage of the conflict within Israel; and greater self-censorship and biased reporting, particularly during the outbreak of open war in late December."
Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are concerns about harassment of journalists and bloggers in Libya, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. The drop in violence in war-torn Iraq helped journalists move around the country, and a new law in the Kurdish region gave journalists "unprecedented freedoms."
Hong Kong, which is part of China, also dropped in rankings from free to partly free, a reflection of "the growing influence of Beijing over media and free expression in the territory."
"Of particular concern were the appointment of 10 owners of Hong Kong media outlets to a mainland Chinese political advisory body, increased restrictions on film releases in the period surrounding the Olympics, and reports that critics of Beijing encountered growing difficulty in gaining access to Hong Kong media platforms."
The report cited deterioration of of freedoms in Taiwan, which has been characterized as East Asia's freest media environment. That's because of "legal pressures and attempts to control broadcast media outlets."
Italy dropped from free to partly free because of the "increased use of courts and libel laws to limit free speech, heightened physical and extralegal intimidation by both organized crime and far-right groups, and concerns over media ownership and influence," the report said.
It cited fears about media magnate Silvio Berlusconi becoming prime minister again. There are concerns about "the concentration of state-owned and private outlets under a single leader."
In the former Soviet Union, "legal pressure and attempts to control broadcast media outlets" were cited in Russia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The report noted other problems in Russia, saying "reporters suffer from a high level of personal insecurity, and impunity for past murders or physical attacks against journalists is the norm."
Across Africa, there were "some improvements," citing developments in Comoros, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Liberia. But there were continued problems in places like Zimbabwe and Eritrea.
"Senegal took a significant step backward due to a dramatic increase in both legal and extralegal action against journalists and media houses, accompanied by overtly hostile rhetoric from the president and other officials," the report said.
The report cited strides in South Asian nations, ranking the once "not free" Maldives to "partly free." It mentioned a "new constitution protecting freedom of expression, the opening of additional private radio and television stations, the release of a prominent journalist from life imprisonment, and a general loosening of restrictions after the country's first democratic presidential election in October."
It said Bangladesh and Pakistan reversed declines in freedom of the media. But there were setbacks in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, two countries racked by warfare.
In some countries in the Americas, such as Mexico, Bolivia and Ecuador, "attacks and official rhetoric against the media escalated." Venezuela and Cuba were ranked as not free, and there were "high levels of intimidation and self-censorship" in Colombia and Guatemala. Positive developments were noted in Guyana, Haiti and Uruguay.
The worst-rated countries in the world are Myanmar, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea and Turkmenistan.
"Given the current economic climate, which is certain to place a further strain on media sustainability and diversity in rich and poor countries alike, pressures on media freedom are now looming from all angles and are increasingly threatening the considerable gains of the past quarter-century," the report said.


text:
The University of Idaho Aquaculture Research Institute has research facilities for conducting fish rearing studies both on the Moscow campus and in Hagerman, Idaho. Fish rearing facilities are both indoor and, in Hagerman, outdoor. Indoor facilities are biosecure with environmental controls.
Laboratory managers oversee the fish rearing laboratories at each location and provide the continuity necessary for fish care, feeding and all operations needed for successful research studies by faculty, students and other partners.
The Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) has research facilities both on the Moscow campus and in Hagerman, Idaho.
On the University of Idaho campus, the ARI operates two wet laboratories that have controlled photoperiods and are supplied with either well or dechlorinated municipal water. A laboratory manager overseas the wet labs and provides the continuity necessary in fish care, feeding and operations for successful studies.
Cold Water Research Laboratory
The Cold Water Wet Laboratory operates as a water-limited recirculating facility. Water comes from three wells located near the facility support the lab's activities. A backup diesel generator insures the lab's life-support systems operate in the event of a power outage. There are nine independent recirculating systems that can accommodate a variety of cold water species. In trials conducted at the lab, we have reared multiple salmonid species, sturgeon, and burbot. Each system has independent chilling, biofiltration, and UV treatment. The largest system has four four-meter diameter tanks for rearing of large populations or broodstock. The other systems are comprised of groups of six 680-liter or 1100-liter tanks. Juvenile fish can be housed in either of the recirculating systems use pairs of 350-liter troughs or a system of 48 60-liter tanks. The Cold Water Lab has capabilities to incubate eggs in Heath tray incubators and McDonald jars. Fry can also be held in fiberglass troughs and fed with either single pass or recirculating water. Temperatures in the systems can be maintained between 4 °C and 20 °C.
The Moscow campus wet lab facilities are available to researchers across UI and WSU campuses for a nominal fee.
Burbot Research Facility
The ARI Poultry Hill wet lab (1500 square feet) has been designed to rear non-domesticated cold water fishes and currently holds burbot. The water source for this facility is provided by the campus municipal system. This water is dechlorinated with activated carbon and exposed to UV light. A 1000-gallon solids settling trap and two inline bead filters are used to capture solids before the water is recirculated back to the rearing tanks. There are three six-foot tanks and six five-foot fiberglass circular tanks in the lab that are fed with chilled, recirculating water. Additionally, there are 12 three-foot plastic circular tanks plumbed to receive single pass water or recycled with solids removal capability. Incoming water is carbon filtered and UV sterilized.
The Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station is located in south-central Idaho approximately 90 miles southeast of Boise, Idaho, the state capital. The Station is situated on the grounds of the Hagerman National Fish Hatchery, US Fish & Wildlife Service, and was formerly the Tunison Fish Nutrition Laboratory. The University of Idaho leased the facility from the US Fish & Wildlife Service in 1996 and took possession of the 4-acre property in 1998. In 2006, a new 14,000 ft2 building was dedicated, and included housing offices, a classroom and analytical laboratories. A six-bedroom dormitory and additional fish rearing buildings were also constructed, augmenting existing fish rearing facilities and, in the case of the new office/lab building, replacing the original Fish & Wildlife building.
Research is supported by funding from a wide range of sources including competitive grants from agencies, cooperative agreements and collaborative research with partners such as ARS and CRITFC, and with contracts with industry to conduct product testing and evaluation.
The Hagerman Station has both indoor and outdoor fish rearing facilities, all supplied by gravity-fed, constant 15°C spring water. Multiple studies can be conducted at the same time with trout at all stages of life. Ornamental and/or warm-water fish species are raised indoors in recycled water systems.
The Hagerman Station has extensive analytical laboratories used to support research in feeds, molecular biology and population genetics. Teaching is conducted using state-of-the-art video technology linking the Hagerman Station to classrooms on the Moscow campus and elsewhere.
Analytical Genetic Research
The collaborative molecular biology laboratory in Hagerman uses a variety of state-of-the-art equipment and techniques, including next generation sequencing, genomics, metabolomics, parentage analysis and marker-assisted selection, in its basic and applied research activities in fish nutrition, fish physiology, genetics and breeding, molecular ecology and population studies. Researchers in Hagerman address a diversity of research questions ranging from the effects of diet on gut microbiota profiles and global gene expression, to comparing RAD-sequences from warm and cold water adapted rainbow trout, to parentage-based tagging of Columbia Basin Chinook salmon and steelhead. Researchers also collaborate with scientists at other universities and agencies, analyzing samples and sending samples for analysis.
While rainbow trout are the primary species used in research, researchers also undertake studies on white sturgeon, cutthroat trout, zebrafish and tilapia. Visiting students and scholars receive training which enables them to use these innovative techniques in their own studies upon their return.
Fish Nutrition
Fish research studies are the main activity at the Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station. Reducing the levels of fishmeal and fish oil in fish feeds is a high priority area of research and involves several approaches. Much effort is made to evaluate alternate protein sources to replace fishmeal. A long-term effort has also been made to develop strains of rainbow trout through selective breeding that exhibit high growth performance when fed all plant-protein feeds. Research to identify essential dietary compounds present in fishmeal and absent in plant proteins that must be supplemented to all plant protein feeds is also part of this research effort. Much of this research is conducted with USDA Agriculture Research Service partners.
Similar efforts are made to lower the use of fish oil in feeds, yet maintain the healthful benefits of long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids in farmed fish products for human consumption. Increasing nutrient retention, meaning the use of nutrients in feeds to support fish growth, is another research thrust that has both economic and environmental benefits. Environmental impacts of fish farming are associated with loss of nutrients, mainly phosphorus, to the environment, so increasing phosphorus retention, for example, reduces the impacts of fish farms on the aquatic environment.
Other Research
Many more topics are addressed in research studies at the Hagerman Station. These include studies associated with improving the survival of hatchery salmon and steelhead trout after release, understanding the basis of tolerance of some strains of fish to high water temperatures or other stressors, and developing novel ways to assess environmental stress in fish using non-lethal methods. CRITFC partners are associated with these efforts as well as with population genetics research on salmon and steelhead throughout the region.
Research involves fish rearing studies but also basic research into how the genome, cells, organs and fish respond to changes in the rearing environment, diet and pathogen challenge. Scientists use molecular techniques as well as proteomics and metabolomics to address these questions.


text:
Thus far, the World Economic Forum in Davos has been relatively free of controversy. Unless you count Lloyd Blankfein's beard.
Yes, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, the much admired/feared/loathed Wall Street firm, is sporting a tight, whitish-gray thatch of facial hair. It's not quite a beard, but it's getting there.
Now, facial hair isn't very big in finance. Most of the bearded Davos figures are academics. Think Paul Krugman of Princeton and The New York Times (salt and pepper), Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia (gray and white), Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke (dark before the financial crisis, considerably lighter after the financial crisis), or Barry Eichengreen of the University of California (white).
Of course, there was a time when facial hair was de rigueur on Wall Street. J.P. Morgan had a mustache, and Jay Gould sported the type of bushy beard that would have fit right in with the Avett Brothers.
But in the modern era, Wall Street has been clean shaven. Why? Beards are messy. It is easy to get flecks of steak and cigar ash caught in them. It's challenging to trim your beard on a Gulfstream V.
In today's culture, male facial hair also signifies irony, hipsterism, an anti-big-bank ethos, a certain opposition to the culture at large. Beards are for going to Occupy Wall Street assemblies, not for Wall Street elite assemblies. On Park Avenue, beards are about as rare as readers of Jacobin.
Here is a short and comprehensive list of prominent Wall Street beards. Jon Corzine, one of Blankfein's predecessors as CEO of Goldman Sachs, cultivated a beard throughout his career, and carried it with him to the Senate, to the New Jersey state house, and to MF Global, where his tenure as CEO ended in disaster. Richard Parsons, the former CEO of Dime Savings Bank and Time Warner, who had a short stint as chairman of Citigroup, had one. Paul Singer, the combative proprietor of hedge fund Elliott Associates, has a relatively bushy white beard. Singer is currently engaged in litigation with Argentina over the repayment of bonds and recently had one of Argentina's boats seized in Ghana. Gary Parr, deputy chairman of the investment bank Lazard, rounds out the Wall Street Beard Caucus.
Above all, beards generally don't scream intensity and profits. Indeed, for certain Type A's, growing a beard can be a sign that you're taking it easy, adopting a quasi-slacker lifestyle, giving up. Former vice president Al Gore famously dropped out of sight, grew a beard, and added a paunch after his dispiriting loss in the 2000 election.
That's precisely why Blankfein's facial growth caused feverish speculation. Is this a sign that Blankfein is going casual? That he's preparing to leave the post he has occupied or so many years? That he's thinking of taking up organic farming and the banjo?
Not really. Here in Davos, Blankfein swept through the Congress Center with the same purposeful stride as all the other CEOs. He appeared on public panels and did a CNBC interview. Goldman has held a series of meetings and dinners with clients. Jake Siewert, Goldman's fleece-wearing spokesman, gave me what he hopes will be the final word on Blankfein's newfound hirsuteness. "Sometimes, a beard is just a beard."


text:
When my mother-in-law came to visit, she said, "These are the kinds of crafts you do when you have boys." And she was right. I have guns to show you tomorrow.
Here they are on my Star Wars pillowcase (*which I sewed). Aren't Han and Chewy handsome? (Chewy is hiding behind Boba Fett) Obi-Wan is my favorite. In fact, I've been informed our next dog/baby is to be named Obi. Or Jango. Once the kids outnumber the adults, they start thinking they get a say in things like this. Before I know it, we'll be eating mac 'n cheese and ice cream for dinner every night.
The entire lineup. Minus Leia's hair buns. I may or may not get around to them. Boys don't really notice that kind of thing. |
Darth and Luke in his celebration clothes--requested from my boys, specifically. On a Star Wars blanket, (*which I sewed). Requested by my husband. |
It's so gratifying to make something you or kids enjoy. I think I forgot. I should remember soon though, it's time to start making Christmas pajamas. And praying for snow. How do people have Christmas without snow? Missouri, get with the program. It's December. Merry Christmas to you all!
** I hope you noticed that I did sew something in my post.


text:
Perforation varieties can make the difference
By Michael Baadke
Although you may have two stamps that appear to be identical, the tiniest differences between them can make a big difference in identification.
It may be hard to believe, but even small differences in the type of perforations a stamp has can lead to big differences in catalog values.
The reason usually boils down to scarcity.
Sometimes only a few stamps are created with a specific perforation variety. When collectors learn of the variety and want to add it to their collections, demand may exceed the available supply and cause prices to climb quickly.
Fortunately, collectors have a fairly simple method to distinguish different perforation measurements and identify varieties.
In last week's Refresher Course I described how perforations are the small holes that surround each stamp on a pane. When a mailer or collector wants to remove one stamp from the pane, careful tearing through the perforation holes will do the trick.
Many stamp catalogs, such as those sold by Scott Publishing Co., include information about perforation measurement for every perforated stamp.
To measure perforations, collectors use a tool similar to a ruler called a perforation gauge.
Here is one confusing point: The word "gauge" is used to describe the actual measurement of the perforation as well as the tool used to do the measuring.
So, a collector may say "The gauge of the 29¢ Grace Kelly stamp is perf. 11."
And he uses a perforation gauge to make that determination.
The measurement of a stamp's perforations is described and listed as the number of perforation teeth or holes that are found within the space of two centimeters.
The description "perf. 11" means that the perforations on each side of the stamp measure in such a way that the stamp would have 11 perforation teeth or holes within the space of two centimeters.
Figure 1 shows how a collector uses a perforation gauge to make the proper measurement.
The clear plastic gauge shown in the illustration is called a Linn's Multi-Gauge.
The stamp being measured is the 29¢ Hank Williams stamp issued in 1993 in panes of 40.
Above the stamp illustration is an edited version of the listing for the Hank Williams stamp from the 1999 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps.
Across the top is the notation "Perf. 10," indicating that this stamp should measure with a gauge of 10 on all four sides.
To measure the stamp, the collector places it upon the measuring scale in the center of the Multi-Gauge, and slides the stamp up or down until the slanted vertical lines precisely intersect with each perforation hole or tooth on the stamp.
In the stamp shown at left in Figure 1, the perforations along the top of the stamp are being measured.
Each perforation tip is lined up with the slanting vertical lines precisely where the tool reads "10" (at left).
That measurement helps to identify this stamp as Scott 2723.
Look again at the Scott catalog listing above the Figure 1 illustration. Near the bottom of the description is a listing for a perforation variety of the Hank Williams stamp.
The small letter "a" (indicating Scott 2723a) describes "Perf. 11.2 X 11.4."
This type of measurement with two figures is called a compound perforation.
The horizontal (top and bottom) perforations are different from the vertical (side) perforations. In such a measurement the horizontal perforations are always listed first (in this case, 11.2) and the vertical perforations are listed second (in this case, 11.4).
This unusual perforation variety for the Hank Williams stamp is harder to find than the standard perforate 10 issue. An example of this stamp is shown on the Multi-Gauge at right in Figure 1.
The perforation tips along the top of the stamp align with the vertical lines precisely where the tool reads "11.2."
Now here is a shortcut you can use when looking for scarce perforation varieties.
Once you've identified a common variety, such as the 29¢ Hank Williams stamp at left, you can use the actual stamp to check other examples of the same design.
Place the common stamp directly on top of the stamp in question. If the perforations match up perfectly, the stamp you're checking is also the common variety.
If the perforations don't quite match, check it again using the perforation gauge. You may have found the scarce variety.
Another fairly modern stamp with scarce perforation varieties is the 13¢ Eagle and Shield stamp of 1975 from the U.S. Americana series.
As shown at the bottom of Figure 2, the stamp has been found as an imperforate error. The Scott specialized catalog listing (Figure 2, top) lists "Imperf., pair," under the small letter "a."
Pairs are usually required to prove a stamp is an imperforate error. A single stamp with no perforations around it could simply be a normal stamp with the edges carefully trimmed off.
Near the top of the Scott listing is shown the perforation gauge, 11.2, for Scott 1596, the standard issue of this stamp.
A second minor listing (Scott 1596d) includes the notation "Line perforated."
A note at the end of the listing adds this description: "On No. 1596 the entire sheet is perforated at one time so the perforations meet perfectly at the corners of the stamp. On No. 1596d the perforations do not line up perfectly and are perf. 11."
The perforation gauge can be used to distinguish these two varieties, but the difference between perforate 11.2 for the normal issue and perforate 11 for the scarce variety are quite close and can be a little tricky to determine.
The difference is shown more clearly in the Figure 3 illustration of two 12-stamp plate blocks of the 13¢ Eagle and Shield issue.
At left is the normal issue, which measures gauge 11.2. A close look at the intersections of the horizontal and vertical perforations shows that they meet perfectly each time (one such intersection is shown in the enlargement at top left of Figure 3).
At right is the scarce issue, which measures gauge 11. The perforation intersections may meet close to perfect in some instances, but more often, they are a little off, as shown in the enlargement at top right of Figure 3.
The difference between these two issues can also be seen in the margin paper. The perforations end before reaching the edge of the pane for the normal variety and extend to the edge of the scarce variety.
A collector with both of these blocks will find the common plate block of 12 listing at $3.25 and the scarce block at $375.
Many worldwide stamps have similar perforation differences between otherwise identical stamps, making perforation measurement an important part of your enjoyment and understanding of the stamp hobby.
The Linn's Multi-Gauge is available from stamp dealers or from Linn's Stamp News for $6.95 plus $1 postage.
To order, visit www.linns.com/market/books look for Linn's Multi-Gauge under "Quick Navigation" and click on "Preview this item!"
Postal Updates
Feb 29, 2024, 1 PMRemembering the legacy of Underground Railroad operative William Still and his family
World Stamps
Feb 28, 2024, 3 PMUnited Nations adds four stamps to Flag series
US Stamps
Feb 28, 2024, 1 PMMinute Man savings stamp in strong demand for almost 20 years
US Stamps
Feb 27, 2024, 7 PMLinn's Most Influential Companies in Philately special edition


text:
Veterans Show Off Artistic Talents During Competitve VA Exhibit [GALLERY]
ST. CLOUD – The annual VA Health Care System Veterans Art Show is in full swing right now.
This competitive exhibit in the auditorium of building 8 on the VA campus gives veterans receiving treatment at the VA the chance to express themselves through art, writing, dance and music.
First place winners (such as those featured in this photo gallery) will have the chance to showcase their art at the Nation Veterans Creative Arts Festival.
The exhibit runs today until 6p.m. Then, it starts up again tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
It's free and everyone is welcome.
Also, if you'd like to see some of last year's work, check out this link.


text:
It is that the Australian Defence Force is able to help the emergency services deal with the Queensland floods - and this will be one of the only purposes it is good for on the federal government's current trajectory.
That's not necessarily a terrible thing. That's the choice New Zealand has made, for example. The New Zealand military is useful in natural disasters, it can join peacekeeping missions and it contributes special forces to international ventures.
It's just that it is useless in a traditional large-scale war. New Zealand has decided that it doesn't need to worry about old-fashioned wars, strategic competition and invasions.
It has been described as a "postmodern state" by British diplomat and theorist Robert Cooper. This is one that relinquishes the traditional tools of the independent nation and pools its resources with other nations to solve common problems.
This is a bit of a luxury because it saves that country a lot of money. In 2010, New Zealand spent 40 per cent less on defence as a proportion of its GDP than Australia did.
It's also a rare luxury. The only others to qualify as postmodern states are the European Union, with its project of unification, and Japan, with its postwar "peace constitution" that renounces the use of armed force.
Cooper said that the globe was moving towards a postmodern system because "the world's grown honest". As he wrote in 2002, "a large number of the most powerful states no longer want to fight or conquer".
That may be so in Europe, but in Asia the trend is the reverse. Former US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, likes to say: "It's unthinkable that we could wake up tomorrow and find that a major war has broken out in Europe; it's quite conceivable that we could wake up tomorrow and find that a major war has broken out in Asia."
Japan is rapidly reverting to "modern state" status. Its new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has declared that he aims to rewrite the constitution to authorise armed force, and he intends to increase military spending.
The peace constitution was thrust upon Japan by its World War II conqueror, America. The move towards revising it is being propelled by rising tensions with North Korea and China.
Pyongyang has responded to a recent tightening of United Nations sanctions against it by stating that it will never yield its right to develop nuclear arms. Analysts expect North Korea to conduct another nuclear test in the days ahead.
The historical resentment between China and Japan has flared in recent months. The two nations have engaged in an escalation over the disputed group of tiny islands known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China.
China took the dispute to a new level by sending military aircraft to fly over the islands. Japan responded last week by saying it would fire "warning shots" if any Chinese aircraft failed to heed warnings to back off.
This "increased exponentially" the risk of a serious strategic crisis between Asia's two biggest powers, in the words of Chris Nelson, a Washington-based Asia analyst and publisher of the Nelson Report.
Abe sent an emissary to China's new leader, Xi Jinping, in an effort to break the cycle of escalation. The result is not yet clear.
But Abe's broader intention to recover the use of armed force for his country is really just reverting to the norm. This is the way of most countries, nations that maintain the full range of mechanisms to control their own destinies.
It recognises the reality that China has increased its defence budget faster than any nation in Asia over the past decade. Its military outlays grew at an 11-year compounded annual growth rate of 13.4 per cent, according to a CSIS study. At this rate, it quadruples in a dozen years and will eclipse the US defence budget in 25 years.
In large part, New Zealand has been able to afford the luxury of abandoning its strike capability because it is protected by the strategic bulk of Australia.
In its public pronouncements, Australia has taken a very different course. In the defence white paper published in 2009, the federal government said: "Maintaining a credible defence capability is a crucial contributor to our security, as it can serve to deter potential adversaries from using force against us or our allies, partners and neighbours.
"It is the government's policy that the main role of the Australian Defence Force should continue to be an ability to engage in conventional combat against other armed forces."
And acknowledging that it wasn't enough to just issue declarations of intent, the white paper said that "we have to be prepared to invest the resources required".
Announcing a new vision called Force 2030, the government promised a major new fleet of 12 submarines to replace Australia's existing six decrepit Collins-class subs, and up to 100 of the new US-built air force jets, the joint strike fighters.
The meaning was clear. Australia under Kevin Rudd was hedging against the risk that a rising China could prove to be an aggressive rising power. A strategy of hedging means working towards the best outcome, while preparing for the worst.
Australia would be able to defend its northern approaches and contribute to the defence of its allies in the event that the worst came to pass.
But with the passing of Rudd went the passing of this plan. The former defence official and founder of the Kokoda Foundation, Ross Babbage, sums up the Gillard government's dramatic revision of the 2009 policy:
"The Australian defence budget was cut by almost 5 per cent in 2010-11 and then in last year's budget it was cut again by 10.47 per cent. This reduced our defence spending to 1.56 per cent of GDP, the lowest it has been since 1938. Further cuts can be expected in this year's white paper."
These cuts mean that the Force 2030 vision is effectively dead, according to experts, although the government will not admit as much. A leaked draft of the forthcoming defence white paper suggests that Australia might have just two of the US-made joint strike fighters by 2020. Australia's defence force, already inadequate for any serious conflict, will increasingly lose credibility and relevance.
In truth, Australia's defence position is very similar to New Zealand's. As New Zealand hides behind Australia's strategic bulk, the Gillard government is hiding behind America's "Asia pivot" and its commitment of marines to Darwin.
The difference is that what New Zealand has said openly, Australia will not admit. The Air Force may continue to impress the kids with the Australia Day flyover, but with each passing year the Australian defence force will grow less and less impressive to the rest of the world.
Peter Hartcher is the international editor.


text:
Van Jones
Biographical Information
"Van Jones is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress focusing on "green-collar jobs" and how cities are implementing job-creating climate solutions. Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy. He is a co-founder of three successful nonprofit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All. He is also the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs, The Green Collar Economy." [1]
"In 1996, Van founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the Center promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration. As an advocate for the toughest urban constituencies and causes, Van has won many honors. These include the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader," and the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship.
"Van is also a national environmental leader, having served on the boards the National Apollo Alliance, Social Ventures Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers and Julia Butterfly Hill's "Circle of Life" organization.
"Van's dual roles have given him a unique perspective on the country's problems – and its potential solutions. He is calling for green economic development for urban America. The City of Oakland has adopted the Ella Baker Center's "Green Jobs Corps" proposal, which will train youth for eco-friendly "green-collar jobs." Now Van is pushing to create the first-ever Green Enterprise Zone, to attract environmentally-sound industry to Oakland.
"A 1993 Yale Law graduate, he is also a husband and father. A rising star, Van champions the most hopeful solutions to America's toughest challenges." [2]
- Director, 1Sky [3]
- Trustee, Demos (US) [4]
- Advisory Board, Marion Institute [5]
- Advisory Board, Orion Magazine [6]
- Advisory Board, People-Centered Development Forum [7]
- Advisory Board, Circle of Life Foundation (2005) [8]
- Winner of the 2008 Global Green Environmental Leadership Award [9]
- Contributing Editor, YES! Magazine [10]
- Member, Evolutionary Leaders Forum
- Messenger, 350.org [11]
- Supporter, 99% Spring
- Former Steering Committee, Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities [12]
- Fellow, Institute of Noetic Sciences [13]
Resources and articles
Related Sourcewatch articles
External Articles
- John Stauber, The Progressive Movement is a PR Front for Rich Democrats, March 15, 2013, CounterPunch.
- ↑ Leaders, Evolutionary Leaders Forum, accessed November 1, 2011.
- ↑ Van Jones, Ella Baker Center, accessed July 17, 2007.
- ↑ 1Sky Board, organizational web page, accessed April 5, 2012.
- ↑ Demos (US) Trustees, organizational web page, accessed January 4, 2014.
- ↑ Marion Institute Board, organizational web page, accessed February 12, 2013.
- ↑ Orion Magazine Advisors, organizational web page, accessed April 25, 2012.
- ↑ Directors, People-Centered Development Forum, accessed December 20, 2007.
- ↑ Circle of Life Foundation (from March 2005) Team, organizational web page, accessed May 7, 2012.
- ↑ Millennium Awards, Global Green, accessed August 3, 2008.
- ↑ Contributing Editors, YES! Magazine, accessed January 2, 2009.
- ↑ Messengers, 350.org, accessed December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities Steering Committee, organizational web page, accessed June 1, 2013.
- ↑ Institute of Noetic Sciences Fellows, organizational web page, accessed July 14, 2013.


text:
Gmail has a feature that lets you send messages from other addresses. "Gmail's custom 'From:' feature lets you use Gmail to send messages with another of your email addresses listed as the sender in place of your Gmail address. This way, it's easier to manage multiple accounts from the Gmail interface."
A small inconvenience is that Google needs to include your primary email address in the headers and some mail clients inform users that the message is sent "on behalf of" a different address. Outlook is the biggest offender, especially for business messages sent from a a Gmail address "on behalf of" a custom domain.
Some suggested that Gmail should stop including the primary email address in the headers, but that's a major faux pas, since Gmail needs to authenticate the messages sent using its SMTP servers. "The reason we include your address in the headers at all is to help prevent your mail from being flagged as spam by your recipients' email services. For those who want the technical details, we use the 'Sender' field to be consistent with DomainKeys, a commonly used email authentication mechanism. If we didn't do this, your messages may get sent to your recipients' spam folders, which would be worse than the annoyance the current implementation is causing," explains Google.
The solution for this problem is not very elegant, but Google implemented it: you'll need to send the messages using the email provider's SMTP servers. Go to Gmail's settings page, select the Accounts tab, click on "edit info" next to the account you want to edit and then click on "Save changes". For some reason, this doesn't work for Gmail addresses and Google doesn't make the changes behind the scenes.
"We recognize that your other address might not have a server that you can use to send outbound messages — for example, if you use a forwarding alias rather than an actual mailbox, or if your other email provider doesn't support authenticated SMTP, or restricts access to specific IP ranges. For this reason, we've kept the original method as well," mentions Gmail's blog. The original method sends the messages using Gmail's SMTP servers.
Google Messages is rolling out double tap to react
25 minutes ago


text:
Yahoo has issued a public apology for an event that occurred at their recent Hack Day in Taiwan. Apparently they hired strippers for the event, two years in a row. The girls did their usual bump and grind all over some poor hackers. Poor guys. While there is a part of us that says, "what about the little girls getting into hacking?" the other part of us says, well, you know what it says. Wow, we're suddenly feeling the urge to use yahoo for all of our services. How peculiar.
[via BoingBoing]